Hello. I've posted this in both Economics & PPE and Social and Political Sciences, as per the nature of the question.

I started off sure I wanted to study maths, given that's what I've been good in at school, and gradually have been drawn further away from this towards more socially relevant issues/topics.

In particular, I've been taken by the study of states as self-interested, rational entities and how they and their leaders might interact with issues within their own state and with others competitively given those assumptions. It's particularly interesting looking at Russia, for instance, with their current Putin regime.

On the other hand, I find the idea of my degree being basically completely essay-based rather daunting, given until now my emphasis in school has been quite science and maths heavy. Further, I find that I am more drawn to topics in a general economics syllabus than I am, say, politics (Especially microeconomics, behavioural economics and management-related stuff in relevant degrees). In IR related issues, of course, the middle east and other 'critical' areas are somewhere I'd probably like to study in more detail, especially with regards to geopolitical (and cultural) importance - for instance, I'd love to study a little on the middle east and issues surrounding the area and perhaps work on potential problems there after graduating.

Given what's been stated above. Do you think it's sensible for me to look at a degree in economics and perhaps try to grab relevant modules in IR where available, or should I really look at international relations/politics if this is my interest area?

Doing Economics will mean you're stuck with Micro and Macro for the three years (not sure about compulsory for the other degrees). Other than that, the degrees you mentioned can be made similar by choosing the appropriate modules.

If you want to do the Micro and the Macro, go ahead and take the Economics degree. However if you choose to do Economics based on the fact that it's not purely essay based, I would advise against it. Usually there are non-essay options in Politics/IR as well.